Phoenix farce proves commish not likely to admit mistake any time soon

Regardless of what transpires in the whole soap opera involving the Phoenix Coyotes, Mr. Moneybags Jim Balsillie and shellshocked NHL executives, we can at least confirm one thing -- you can't trust a word that comes out of Gary Bettman's mouth.

For years Bettman has been leading the parade of stuffed suits suggesting that despite massive financial losses, everything was rosy with the Phoenix Coyotes.

He and his stooges joined forces with the cash-bleeding owner of the Coyotes to paint a pretty little picture about a team that is hopelessly lost in an inappropriate market where hockey is a foreign word and ice exists only in cocktail glasses.

Everything's fine, they told us, seemingly pulling their heads out of the desert sand long enough to sing the praises of a floundering franchise.

The NHL is not running the team, they told us time and again. Yes, the league did infuse the franchise with some cash, but it's just a small bump on the road to recovery, they said.

That was then, when it seemed in the league's best interests to keep quiet about their involvement with the Coyotes. This is now.

Now that the team's owner Jerry Moyes decides he wants to file for bankruptcy and sell the team to the persistent but bridge-burning Balsillie, the NHL admits it has been running the Coyotes since November.

Balsillie's ambush has forced Bettman to go on the defensive -- in court no less -- and he has to be just a little more forthright than usual.

Balsillie's tactics, which could anger the powers-that-be so much it ultimately costs southern Ontario a chance at getting a second NHL franchise, are not winning him any friends and have painted the NHL into a bizarre corner where it is fighting to save a money-draining franchise in an awful, non-traditional market.

Instead of admitting his greatest mistake -- moving the Winnipeg Jets to Phoenix -- Bettman's doing everything he can to cover it up.

The whole thing seems so disingenuous it's almost comical.

Kind of fits Bettman to a T, doesn't it?

MANNY BEING MANNY: If Manny Ramirez is not a cheater then his brain must be as shriveled as his testicles.

No professional baseball player would really be stupid enough to ingest a drug that is known to be associated with steroid use -- especially in this day and age of fallen heroes -- without fearing the ramifications.

If Ramirez is not a liar then he's a moron.

The women's fertility drug he took actually can be taken for legitimate medical reasons and a player would be able to seek out permission from Major League Baseball if it was prescribed to him. Manny claims he took the drug for a valid medical reason, but he didn't ask for permission. And if that's not telltale enough, he also chose not to appeal his 50-game suspension, something any truly innocent player would be sure to do. He's going to lose $7.5 million off his gigantic salary, for crying out loud. I can't imagine too many innocent men letting that happen quietly.

What we have here is another player joining the long line of superstars who have utterly tainted the game with their egomaniacal need to succeed at a superhuman level.

He, and his fans and teammates in Los Angeles, just happen to be paying a much bigger price than many of the other ever did.

RANDOM THOUGHTS: Balsillie reports overwhelming support for his plan to buy the Coyotes and move them to southern Ontario on his website makeitseven.ca. Hundreds of thousands of people have signed up in support of his plan. Of course this is akin to asking hockey fans if they'd like to see Canada win the gold medal at next year's Olympics. What do you think they're going to say? No, that's a bad idea? ... Part of me wants to see the Coyotes back in Canada where they belong and part of me wants nothing less than to see Hamilton get an NHL team before Winnipeg ... If the NHL big wigs don't want a team to move into southern Ontario because it would infringe on the territory of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Buffalo Sabres, Big Jim can always put his team somewhere else in Canada. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more ... Or maybe, just out of spite, Bettman will allow Mark Chipman to buy the Coyotes for a reduced rate. OK I believe those are straws I'm grasping ... The Winnipeg Blue Bombers have signed a young, up-and-coming kicker by the name of Dan Giancola. Apparently, they settled on the 39-year-old kicker when Troy Westwood, Bob Cameron and Lui Passaglia said they weren't available ... What do the Toronto Blue Jays, Kansas City Royals and Texas Rangers have in common? All first-place teams as of yesterday. Anyone who predicted that at the start of the season should start buying lottery tickets ... It has come to this for Brett Favre, the tarnished erstwhile star quarterback of the Green Bay Packers: He can't seem to make up his mind from day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute about his future in the NFL. Dude, pick a plan and stick with it. Please .